It goes without saying that the slowdown of the cryptocurrency market in 2018/2019 upset many of the new companies in this industry, even those that have established an unquestionable hegemony. An Ethereum Classic development group was completely withdrawn, while Bitmain, ConsenSys, Steemit, Huobi and ShapeShift more recently received a mandate to purge employees to maintain a sufficient financial track. However, there have been some friendly companies with encryption, namely Ripple that have excelled in this hostile environment.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based company revealed that it surpassed a key milestone, even as sellers continued to wreak havoc on the Bitcoin price.
Ripple surpasses milestones in the midst of a broader crypto crisis
Ripple Insights, the internal blog of the Fintech firm, published a report on its payment network, called RippleNet, on January 8. In the brief and concise message, the US team of newcomers explained that 13 financial institutions, which come from Canada to Kuwait, had just registered with RippleNet, a self-directed “frictionless experience” focused on making money transactions worldwide.
These 13 new additions, five of which “will take advantage of the digital asset XRP” to generate global liquidity, for the company’s clientele, means that RippleNet now facilitates cross-border processes for more than 200 clients.
Best perfomance for Ripple
Speaking on the subject, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, a technology entrepreneur with two decades in the “business”, said that 2018 was the year with the best performance of his firm. More specifically, through the company’s blog, Garlinghouse explained that Ripple saw its customer base increase by 100 in the previous year. The head of the company even suppressed concerns that growth had slowed and noted that Ripple continues to sign “two, sometimes three, new customers per week.”
However, this statistic of monumental growth, which is impressive for any startup, whether in the cryptosphere or anywhere else, was just the proverbial edge of the iceberg. Garlinghouse added that year after year, the transaction count in RippleNet increased by 350%, as a growing number of customers have begun to use the XRP asset.
All wins for Ripple
Kate Rooney, with RippleNet, Garlinghouse and her team seek to actively disrupt a $ 2 billion industry. This branch of the financial industry, which has quickly become a subject of focus for Ripple, is the cross-border payment scope, which has historically been ruled with a heavy hand by centralized, often exploitative banks.
Most US banks, which use the centralized SWIFT ecosystem, charge more than a $ 30 flat fee for global bank transfers. And although Bitcoin has already proven to be a great alternative, promoting transaction rates of less than $ 1, virtually instantaneous transaction times and resistance to censorship, Ripple believes it can further improve the benefits offered by the de facto grandfather of cryptocurrencies.
The word of Garlinghouse
Commenting on the unspoken war that Ripple has essentially waged on SWIFT, Garlinghouse said that decentralized ledgers are “a massive breakthrough” compared to their centralized counterparts. Supporting his claim, the industry expert noted that an unnamed remittance provider saw an increase of 800% in usage and a 95% cost cut when implementing the Ripple technology. Garlinghouse even claimed that if this unbridled success continues to spread, Ripple’s extensive ecosystem will eventually “take over SWIFT”.
Taking into account the growth rate that RippleNet has experienced, a world where blockchain-based technology runs the world’s finances might not be a quixotic dream.
The Fable “Crypto Holy War”
While many XRP advocates believe that Ripple is fighting the good fight, so to speak, many long-time Bitcoin fans have openly protested against the apparent infatuation of the Fintech firm with the centralized financial arena. Some cynics have even argued that the start-up of the United States is in bed with the bigwig banks, and prepared to flip the “death switch”, subsequently killing decentralization.
Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTCC and board member of the Bitcoin Foundation, told the up-and-coming Cheddar store.
Ripple and centralization
“Ripple has a reputation for being centralized, although some [of its] proponents claim that it is decentralized, so I think it’s important [that we distinguish between the two], because the world until the invention of Bitcoin has never seen anything that be digital and also decentralized.
Charlie Lee’s brother added that using the term “decentralized” for central broadcasting tokens, such as XRP, can be “dangerous, and a waste of great terminology.” And interestingly, Lee is not alone in making such comments. Recently, after the attack against the chain of blocks Ethereum Classic, the fans of XRP took to Twitter to attack the books of tests of work (PoW), specifically by its incapacity to maintain the transactional purpose.
The PoW believers took time to defend themselves
Rob Paone, better known as Crypto Bobby, noted that there is a potential risk that Ripple is “very vulnerable to government [to action], regulators, and the like.” Gab.com, a free-spoken pro-crypto social media platform of problems, explained that if Ripple Labs can freeze funds, always and for any reason, there is a possibility that you have a “fraudster in Your hands that are not decentralized”.
However, through several interviews and occurrences in social networks, the suite c of Ripple has openly criticized these criticisms, stating that this delicate behavior is reminiscent of a “holy war” and is actually slowing the development cycle of this sector .
Speaking with Cheddar, Chris Larsen, who built XRP (once called OpenCoin) along with Jed McCaleb, noted that “there is now a religious war between platforms,” adding that the “nonsense and FUD” that is thrown incessantly is not beneficial.